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Watandost in Urdu, Turkish and Farsi means "friend of the nation or country". The blog contains news and views about Pakistan and broader South West Asia that are insightful but are often not part of the headlines. It also covers major debates in Muslim societies across the world.

ISLAMABAD: The Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on Friday took suo moto notice of a girl's flogging in Swat and issued notices to the federal interior secretary and the chief secretary as well as the inspector general police, NWFP, to personally appear before the court on Monday.

He also directed the federal interior secretary to procure and produce the victim (girl) before the court on the date fixed. According to Reuters grainy video footage, which emerged on Friday, apparently shot with a mobile phone camera shows militants making the burqa-clad girl lie on the ground on her stomach. One man holds her feet and another her head while a third man with a black beard and turban flogs her with a leather strap. Men can be seen looking on.

"For God's sake, stop it ... hang on, hang on," the girl cries as the man beats her across the buttocks. A militant commander off-camera can be heard giving orders as the girl squirms and whimpers under the blows: "Hold her feet tightly, hold her hands tightly." Human rights activist Samar Minallah said the girl was from a poor family and was flogged after a neighbour told the Taliban she had had an affair.

"They did this brutality just on suspicion. There was no trial. No evidence, no witness was produced," she said. The chief justice ordered fixation of the matter under the Article 184(3) of the Constitution before an eight-member larger bench of the Supreme Court to be headed by him (CJP) on Monday. The larger bench consists of Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday, Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan, Justice Raja Fayyaz Ahmed and Justice Ch Ijaz Ahmed.

In this respect, notices have also been issued to the attorney general (AG), NWFP advocate general and Peshawar High Court Bar Association president to appear on the fixed date to assist the court.

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